US Embassy stokes World Cup fever through Twitter

By Soledad Ytuarte

The Twitter account of the US Embassy in Buenos Aires (@EmbajadaEEUUarg) seems to be very busy these days. With colloquial expressions such as “Ta fresco pa chomba” (something like it’s chilly for a t-shirt) or hashtags like #HayEquipo (we have a team), its social media team, formed by US natives and Argentineans, made a surprising move which had its more than 16 thousand followers active the whole weekend, responding to and re-tweeting football comments and strangely informal remarks.

World Cup fever has reached the embassy’s offices and is transcending the political and economic agenda, focused these days on other matters like the government’s negotiation with the holdouts.

The embassy’s spokesperson told the BuenosAiresHerald.com today “the tweets we publish during the World Cup games are part of a general strategy the US Embassy has in our diverse social network channels.”

“We seek to inform about our activities, answer to doubts and interact with the community of users who follow us,” she went on specifying that the Argentine audience is their main target, making these social conversations “have a great impact among Argentine users.” “We have a lot of fun with this,” she said.

The tweets they posted during the match between Argentina and Iran last Saturday, were amongst the most popular, with hundreds of re-tweets. “The NASA gave astronauts the day off so they don’t miss the #MessiMagic #OutOfThisWorld”, was one of the comments, which was posted with a picture of the ISS astronauts watching the game on a computer. “We back the request of Secretary John Kerry although #LaMessiMagicEsArgentina is difficult,” they continued.

Probably one of the most humorous remarks was the one posted before the game between the US and Portugal yesterday. “We are ready to watch our national team against Portugal at the Manaos stadium. Oops! Suddenly, I’m thirsty. #VamosManaos” (Manaos is also the name of a local soda brand).

Seven hundred new followers over the last weekend is the result of this interaction with their Twitter audience and raffles, among other good ideas. The Embassy seems to have discovered the benefits of the micro blogging network, and everything indicates it’s just the beginning.